Washington, DC: The question of whether the federal government should legalize and regulate the adult use of marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol is the leading vote-getter on the White House’s recently launched online petition website, ‘ We the People .’ The site is described as a ‘new way to petition the Obama administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country.’ NORML’s submission , which asks: “Isn’t it time to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol? If not, please explain why you feel that the continued criminalization of cannabis will achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?” is presently the most popular petition, garnering over 43,000 individual votes from the public. According to the website, any petition that receives more than 5,000 votes will receive a public response from a representative of the Obama administration. NORML’s submission surpassed the 5,000-vote threshold within hours of the website’s launch. Two separate petitions regarding marijuana policy are also among the most popular petitions on the site. The popularity of NORML’s White House petition has received widespread mainstream media coverage , including mentions by MSNBC , The New York Times , Forbes , and the International Business Times . For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director or Erik Altieri, NORML Communications Coordinator, at (202) 483-5500.